Hope you're having a great lead up to Christmas. Bloody hot here today in Aus…

I was thinking how odd it is that there is a distinct lack of photo and and video documentation of the Atlanta 94 concerts -either 2/4 or 3/4.

Just wanted to see if anyone knew why this was the case? Seems odd, given the documented significance of this show to the band members, the extensive video and photo evidence of many other eras of the band, and their obvious penchant for video/photo documenting.

Was it just because there was an awful lot of other stuff going on, or is there stuff being held back - your most excellent opinions (or informed knowledge) sought.

But back to this...I'd heard that the PJ20 museum had some stuff from this show, just strange that there's very little video/photo evidence out there in t public realm…seems very protected for some reason.

Anyone able to elaborate on what it was that was shown at PJ20 for those that weren't able to make it…

But back to this...I'd heard that the PJ20 museum had some stuff from this show, just strange that there's very little video/photo evidence out there in t public realm…seems very protected for some reason.

There's as much video / photo from this show as there is from many other shows from this era. You seem surprised; you shouldn't be. This is the VHS camcorder & pre digital camera era.

_________________

emanon wrote:

I think I either need to drink less to become more alert, or more so as not to care.

There were rumors years ago of video shot sidestage, but I don't know if it was ever a real thing.

I think part of it was just the nature of the night. If you somehow had a ticket, you were lucky as hell. They easily could have sold out an arena (and probably several nights), but played two nights at a 4000-capacity venue instead. Tickets sold out as quickly as the TM outlets could print them. Would you have really wanted to risk not getting in, or getting thrown out? Even with photos - cameras were still entirely verboten at concerts.

And this wasn't an arena-type show where you could hide upstairs and shoot video without anyone noticing. Given the shape of the venue, anyone filming upstairs would have been seen by the ushers at the front of the balcony, and most people downstairs would have had to hold the camera over their heads to be able to capture anything. Downstairs at The Fox was built for people to sit during shows, so with everyone standing, your line of sight isn't that good - I was somewhere around row CC, and I was basically standing on the seat or on the armrests for most of the show.

Honestly, my friend and I were surprised that night that there weren't any cameras. We totally expected the band to film it. But we didn't see any.

There were rumors years ago of video shot sidestage, but I don't know if it was ever a real thing.

I think part of it was just the nature of the night. If you somehow had a ticket, you were lucky as hell. They easily could have sold out an arena (and probably several nights), but played two nights at a 4000-capacity venue instead. Tickets sold out as quickly as the TM outlets could print them. Would you have really wanted to risk not getting in, or getting thrown out? Even with photos - cameras were still entirely verboten at concerts.

And this wasn't an arena-type show where you could hide upstairs and shoot video without anyone noticing. Given the shape of the venue, anyone filming upstairs would have been seen by the ushers at the front of the balcony, and most people downstairs would have had to hold the camera over their heads to be able to capture anything. Downstairs at The Fox was built for people to sit during shows, so with everyone standing, your line of sight isn't that good - I was somewhere around row CC, and I was basically standing on the seat or on the armrests for most of the show.

Honestly, my friend and I were surprised that night that there weren't any cameras. We totally expected the band to film it. But we didn't see any.

Thanks for the recall UglyRed. I'm from the era where you couldn't even get a disposable camera through the door to music shows, so am not surprised that there is no fan shot photo/video. I guess I am as surprised as you were that there were no cameras (video or photo) on behalf for the band for what was a pretty eventful show.

They easily could have sold out an arena (and probably several nights), but played two nights at a 4000-capacity venue instead.

Does anyone have information about their booking choices for this tour? As you mention, they chose the theater in Atlanta. In other places, they played small- and mid-sized arenas.

Had there originally been a bigger New York City concert scheduled, but cancelled? I've always wondered why they only played one night at the theater there.

The Concert Chronology says tickets were only available to fan club members and radio contest winners

The concert shirts from that era didn't include New York on them (see an example here)

That lists dates starting in Denver and running through Boston. It's also missing the Pensacola show, which was a Rock for Choice benefit. And it includes a Charlotte stop between Atlanta and Springfield that didn't happen. Can't find anything as to why.

The Concert Chronology says tickets were only available to fan club members and radio contest winners

The concert shirts from that era didn't include New York on them (see an example here)

That lists dates starting in Denver and running through Boston. It's also missing the Pensacola show, which was a Rock for Choice benefit. And it includes a Charlotte stop between Atlanta and Springfield that didn't happen. Can't find anything as to why.

Thanks. So they probably just added on a fan club show after they were booked for Saturday Night Live.

It seemed like it was a hastily thrown together tour. But it was hard to tell, given the band's antics around it.

The dates weren't released (and tickets didn't go on sale) until mid-February for shows that started in early March. Even a cobbled-together tour dates list on a.m.p-j at the end of February had several dates that got changed or moved. (The Orpheum show was added later.)

As far as Atlanta went, I somehow heard something was coming in early February. I called Ticketmaster every couple of days to see if they had any info, and it was always the same: "We have no information about a Pearl Jam show in Atlanta." That included the morning that the tickets went on sale. I found out the details about the show(s) later that afternoon when I walked past a record store that had a sign on the door that read: "Pearl Jam in Atlanta Sold Out".

In at least a couple of cases (including Atlanta), they announced the show and put the tickets on sale less than an hour later. Friends in Atlanta told me it was chaos - the announcement was made on 99X (radio) at like 3:00pm on a Thursday, so people were streaming out of high schools trying to get to TM outlets. There were stories at the time of people jumping out of moving vehicles - there was a rumor that a kid got killed in Virginia because of the chaos around the Fairfax on-sale, but I never heard officially that it happened. (The internet has always been full of bullshit, even in 1994.)

With the obvious exceptions of Chicago and Boston Gardens, most of the shows on the tour were in the 4-8000 range. (The Paramount in Denver holds less than 2000.) If you think about the current pop acts who book stadium shows a year in advance - they were closer to that in 1994.

Btw - most of us thought the band were being complete assholes to do a tour like this and sell it that way. I would genuinely be surprised if someone didn't get killed. (The indication was that they were doing it that way to beat scalpers. The arena shows on college campuses were usually sold to students first.) At the time, the announcement of the satellite broadcast almost felt like an apology - "we know a lot of you missed out, so we're doing this for you."

As for Charlotte: there was apparently a local newspaper article claiming that there would be a show in the area around the time of the Final Four, which was in Charlotte the weekend of April 1st. I wondered if that ended up being a complication, or if the band decided to spend longer in Atlanta, possibly to work on Vitalogy (or to prepare for the Fox gigs).

It seemed like it was a hastily thrown together tour. But it was hard to tell, given the band's antics around it.

The dates weren't released (and tickets didn't go on sale) until mid-February for shows that started in early March. Even a cobbled-together tour dates list on a.m.p-j at the end of February had several dates that got changed or moved. (The Orpheum show was added later.)

As far as Atlanta went, I somehow heard something was coming in early February. I called Ticketmaster every couple of days to see if they had any info, and it was always the same: "We have no information about a Pearl Jam show in Atlanta." That included the morning that the tickets went on sale. I found out the details about the show(s) later that afternoon when I walked past a record store that had a sign on the door that read: "Pearl Jam in Atlanta Sold Out".

In at least a couple of cases (including Atlanta), they announced the show and put the tickets on sale less than an hour later. Friends in Atlanta told me it was chaos - the announcement was made on 99X (radio) at like 3:00pm on a Thursday, so people were streaming out of high schools trying to get to TM outlets. There were stories at the time of people jumping out of moving vehicles - there was a rumor that a kid got killed in Virginia because of the chaos around the Fairfax on-sale, but I never heard officially that it happened. (The internet has always been full of bullshit, even in 1994.)

With the obvious exceptions of Chicago and Boston Gardens, most of the shows on the tour were in the 4-8000 range. (The Paramount in Denver holds less than 2000.) If you think about the current pop acts who book stadium shows a year in advance - they were closer to that in 1994.

Btw - most of us thought the band were being complete assholes to do a tour like this and sell it that way. I would genuinely be surprised if someone didn't get killed. (The indication was that they were doing it that way to beat scalpers. The arena shows on college campuses were usually sold to students first.) At the time, the announcement of the satellite broadcast almost felt like an apology - "we know a lot of you missed out, so we're doing this for you."

As for Charlotte: there was apparently a local newspaper article claiming that there would be a show in the area around the time of the Final Four, which was in Charlotte the weekend of April 1st. I wondered if that ended up being a complication, or if the band decided to spend longer in Atlanta, possibly to work on Vitalogy (or to prepare for the Fox gigs).

Great Story. Good times.

I was living in Albany, NY and was driving home from my shitty, just graduated from college job at 3pm and heard on WEQX 102.7 that Pearl Jam tickets for a show in Springfield are on sale NOW. I had just gone to Nirvana there a few months prior and was stoked.

I pulled my car into a Hess gas station and called 1-800-ticketmaster from a payphone and got reserved seats on the side. They charged my card and everything.

Time goes on and I never get the tickets. I called ticketmaster a few times and they said they have yet to be printed, etc. Nothing in the mail.

Finally, two days before the show I call. Where the hell are my tickets?? They put me on hold and bounce me around. Turns out it was a snafu and they sold those seats to someone else. They did have floor tickets though if I would like to take those or cancel my order. How they had found floor tickets is beyond me. They over-nighted the floor tickets and UPS came in the mid afternoon day of the show and we left Albany, literally as we opened the envelope.

I was upfront right in front of Ed and remember looking at Ed's duct taped boots and army jacket. It was tough to stay alive as as the crowd was nuts. Porch had the best strobe light I have ever seen. It was total light..then total dark...light...dark..etc.. Ed spun the mic around and with the strobe light it looked like a flip show.

I'm amazed at how it all worked out.

Last edited by gatherspeed on Wed January 03, 2018 5:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.